Climate Change and Plant Survival Strategies: Physiological and Biochemical Adaptations
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 14
Special Issue Editors
Interests: plant evolutionary ecology; plant–environment interaction; phenotypic plasticity; biochemical adaptations; heat stress proteins; I. pumila
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: plant evolutionary ecology; phenotypic plasticity; plant ecophysiology; phenotypic selection; pollination ecology; morphometrics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Over the past decades, accelerating environmental changes have increasingly disrupted the conditions under which plants have evolved and thrived. Unpredictable temperature fluctuations, prolonged periods of drought, shifting precipitation patterns, and other climate-related stressors have created a complex and often hostile landscape for plant growth and development. As sessile organisms, plants must rely on their intrinsic ability to perceive and respond to environmental cues through finely tuned physiological and biochemical mechanisms.
In response to these challenges, plants employ a wide range of adaptive strategies that help maintain essential functions under stress. Physiological adjustments—such as regulation of transpiration, changes in photosynthetic capacity, and alterations in resource allocation—are often coupled with biochemical responses, including antioxidant defense activation, hormonal modulation, and metabolic reprogramming. These mechanisms not only ensure short-term survival but can also influence long-term resilience across generations.
This Special Issue of Plants aims to highlight current research that explores how plants cope with the pressures of a changing climate at a physiological and biochemical level. We welcome manuscripts that address plant responses to drought, temperature extremes, salinity, and other environmental constraints. We particularly encourage studies that employ integrative approaches combining molecular biology, stress physiology, and biochemical analysis.
By deepening our understanding of the functional responses that support plant survival, this Special Issue aims to contribute to broader efforts of developing sustainable, climate-resilient plant systems in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. In a time of growing ecological uncertainty, increasing knowledge of plant adaptive capacity is essential for anticipating future challenges and promoting innovative solutions for global food and ecosystem security.
Dr. Sanja Manitašević Jovanović
Dr. Ana Vuleta
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- climate change
- heat stress
- oxidative stress
- drought stress
- adaptation
- phenotypic plasticity
- plant functional traits
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